Detective Ryan, What Could You Have Done?
by Ailidh Caer
Summary: A late night call and a treasured necklace with bear claws and several distraught tears. Rated T for Language and violence (plus some icky icky dead bodies)
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything and this is a re-edit of the original first chapter, wanted to make it better so I did. Hope this one is better! Much love mwah! mwah! Au re voir!**

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The work day has been slow, hell, the work week has been slow. A tired Detective Ryan is sitting at his desk, looking forward to a nice, relaxing night at home with his wife and a warm mug of honey-milk. But for the time being he has to take care of some paperwork that had backlogged over the course of the week. He, Esposito, Beckett and Castle had all just finished a tough case that had taken longer than first speculated to put away. Beckett and Castle are back at the author's loft, making a celebratory dinner for themselves along with Martha and Alexis while Esposito is trying to convince Laney to go with him to a concert he'd gotten a pair of tickets for. The tickets had originally been for him and Ryan but since no one seemed to want to do the paperwork Kevin took over and told Javier that he'd make it up to him. The face Javi had made when he declined the offer is still nagging at Ryan's mind and he is starting to consider putting the paperwork away to join his partner in the evenings festivities.

But as it stands, Ryan is mere inches from being finished with all the backlogged paperwork when the phone on his desk starts to ring. He lets out a defeated sigh and puts his pen down, letting the phone ring as he stretches out his sore, cramped hand. He picks it up, ceasing the incessant ringing with a short answer,

"Ryan." There is a pause as the uni on the other end of the phone reports to him about a body found in lower Manhattan. The details are spared but the uni told him to get down there fast.

Kevin scans the precinct for his partner and his coroner girlfriend until he finds them chatting, or fighting, in the break room. He lets out a sharp, precise whistle at Javi and swung his arm in a quick circle over his head, telling him to come out to the bullpen.

"Yo, what's up? You back on board for going to that concert?" Javi grins as he walks back into the array of desks and chairs and computers,

"No, we got a fresh one down in lower Manhattan." He nods to his partner, "Unis say it was called in just a few minutes ago." Javi nods and starts to get his badge and gun from the top drawer of his own desk while Ryan does the same,

"Man. I was really looking forward to going to that concert." Javi complains as he puts on his leather jacket,

"You might wanna get your girlfriend. Pearlmudder's off for the week." Ryan jokes at his partner, pointing after the disgruntled coroner as she storms out of the precinct,

"Ha haha ha." Javi mock laughs at Ryan as he walks after Laney's angry stride, "Hey Laney! Wait up!" Ryan shakes his head as he watches them enter the elevator together.

Watching them do their little dance sparks Ryan's memory and he pulls out his phone and dials his lovely wife, Jenny. He leans back on his desk as the phone rings and watches the floor tiles as they do nothing beneath his feet,

_"Hey Kev, what's up?"_ She sounds a little tired on the other end, but then again, who in her position wouldn't be tired?

"Hey, Jenny, just calling to say a case came up. I probably won't be home until the wee hours of the morning." He smiles to himself as Jenny answers back,

_"Oh, okay Kev. I won't wait up for you. Wake me up when you get home though."_ Kevin nods, forgetting that she can't see him and smirks to himself,

"Sure thing honey. Love you." After Jenny answers him Kevin waits to hear her hang up before turning his phone off and slipping it into the pocket of his dark grey jacket that matches his vest. Ryan was known widely around the precinct for his snazzy three piece suits. Today he's wearing a red shirt with a dark grey pair of slacks, vest and jacket to go over his white, silk tie. To top off the ensemble he's wearing a brilliant, silver Rolex on his left wrist that Castle had gotten him for his birthday earlier that year and the necklace he'd gotten from his sister when they were younger. Its a simple circle with the Celtic trinity clinging to the edges by slivers of gold dangling from a faux-gold chain. He hadn't taken it off since she gave it to him nor her the one he gave her,

_"Love you too Kev. Be careful."_ He smirks and waits till she hangs the phone up before grabbing his coat and following in Javi's footsteps to the car.

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"Man, it took me like a week to get those tickets!" The entire drive to lower Manhattan had consisted of Javier complaining to Kevin about his lack of concert going. All Kevin could do was laugh at him and watch the road,

"Yeah well, I'm sure Castle can get you more one way or another." Kevin slams the door of the brand new Mustang Javier had gotten a few years back and Javi did the same.

Uniforms and the coroner are already on scene when Kevin and Javier arrive and a barrier has been set up around the body, keeping the curious standers by from getting any closer than their stretched necks would let them. The body is in the center of a small, side street, close to a lamp post with the upper part of it covered by a jacket. Laney is squatting next to it, scribbling notes onto her examiner's report about the body,

"Hey Lane-"

"Don't you talk to me Javier." Kevin mouths a wince in Javi's direction and tries to hide a smile ,

"Ouch." He laughs at Javi and goes up next to Laney, squatting next to her, "So what's with this one Laney?" He reaches down with his pen to start to move the jacket out of the way but Laney tries to stop him, bumping his hand away but in the process exposing part of the victim's appearance. Kevin freezes and stares down at the item on the ground before him, "What the hell?" As he speaks his eyebrows twitch together and he reaches down and grabs the small, golden pendant in his hand, studying the lines that criss and cross over each other in a melodic fashion,

"You recognize this?" Laney nods toward the small piece of metal and creases her eyebrows,

"Yeah, it's the Celtic symbol for 'sister'. My sister and I exchanged ones just like this when we were younger." Kevin is so lost in studying the small heart that had been interlaced with the Celtic trinity that he didn't noticed Javier come up behind him,

"I didn't know you had a sister." Javi scribbles into his notepad something a uniformed officer whispers into his ear,

"She's the youngest of my family. Teagan is her name. We don't talk about her much but she's really the highlight of my family. Everyone who's met her loves her." He overturns the pendant in his hand, staring as the red white and blue bounces off the delicate gold. He rubs his thumb over the soft metal before it lays flat, upside down in his palm, "There's something written here. Laney do you have a flashlight?" He looks at the coroner who cocks a sassy eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips, "Right. Javi?" The man's partner whips out a small, black mag-light and shines it down into his partner's hand, illuminating the script lettering on the back of the heart.

Ryan squints down at the lettering, studying the script more closely than he had been before. His eyebrows twitch together as he reads the words out loud,

"Teagan M. Ryan. Laney have you taken the jacket off the girl's face yet?" Laney shakes her head,

"No, you guys had only just shown up when I'd begun the assessment of her body." Ryan stands up and continues to stare down at the young woman's body on the pavement, "I can do that now if you want me to."

Ryan's heart jumps into his throat as he nods at the young coroner. His nerves are going wild as he watches her begin to pull back the beige overcoat. Blood is coating the pavement from a head wound received from the killer. Espo and Kevin separate, going to either side of the body, Kevin staying on the side with Laney and Espo going around to the opposite to help her pull back the coat. She pulls it back another few inches and dark, tumbling curls are revealed, matted with blood and dirt. Kevin takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what is underneath the last few inches of coat that are still on the body. Laney and Espo both remove the last bit of the coat at the same time to reveal a stunning young woman. A young woman whom Detective Ryan has seen before.

Ryan staggers back a few steps, shocked at what was underneath the coat.

The woman's face has been carved into. The words are haggard and as deep as the bone would let them be, spilling blood over the rest of her face, making her close to unrecognizable. But Kevin knows exactly who it is. He takes a deep breath and stares down at the body, it was like his first time seeing a body all over again, the twisting and churning of his stomach was too much, he took a few steps backward, bumping into the spotlight that Laney had put on the body and knocking it over before taking a few more steps and relieving his stomach of it's contents onto the pavement,

"Woah! Kevin are you okay?" Espo comes up behind him and puts a hand on his back as Kevin's body starts shaking and his breathing becomes heavier and more uneven as he tries to compose himself in front of what seemed to be the entire police force, "C'mere." Espo grabs his partner's arm and pulls him toward the edge of the crime scene, sitting him down on the curb furthest from the body.

Kevin is staring, wild eyed at the body, his mind racing in every other direction as he tries to come up with a reason why she'd be here,

"Sh-she was supposed to be back home." He mutters to himself as Laney comes up in front of him, putting a hand on his knee as he stares at the body,

"Kevin?" Her voice is soft and kind as her big brown eyes watch him caringly, "Sweety I need you to look at me." His eyes travel, slowly from the body to meet up with Laney's eyes. His chest is still rising and falling with every deep, ragged breath he takes, "Kev, do you know the victim?" He's only barely able to nod to her as tears start to slip from his eyes, "Kev, sweety I need to know how you knew the victim." Her other hand rests on the crook of his elbow as his eyes wander back to the body,

"Sh-she's my sister." Laney and Espo both exchange looks before Laney taps Espo's leg, telling him to go away from a little while.

Kevin's eyes are still wildly watching everything around him as the uniforms and the coroner's aids finish assessing the crime scene,

"Sh-she was supposed to be back home, with our brother. This isn't like her to be down here." He stares down at the ground before grabbing his own necklace and looking at it. Kevin wiped away a few of the tears before they spilled down his face,

"Can you tell me anything about her? Like what she might have been doing down here?" Kevin shakes his head, keeping eye contact with the lovely coroner in front of him, "Did she have a boyfriend?" Kevin studies Laney's face for a minute before shaking his head,

"N-not that I can remember." He starts running his hands through his hair, trying to keep himself from breaking down in front of everyone in sight, "O-oh God, Teags!" He can't help but cry out as his heart broke even further in two. This is the little girl that he had to carry to school because she was too scared to walk on the pavement and the same little girl that he had to take care of when she was sick,

"Kevin sweety, it's okay." Laney sits down next to him and grabs him in a soft hug, holding him gently, "Is there anyone we should call to tell about what happened? Do you wanna call Matt and tell him yourself?" Kevin nods, remembering his younger brother would also want to know about the death of the family's baby.

There's a pause as Kevin's expression begins to harden and Laney sits back a little bit, still watching the broken man in his transformations through grief,

"Who would do this to a girl like her?" He looks up at Laney and then back at Teagan, laying still on the pavement, "Huh?! I mean, she was just a kid! She wouldn't have been able to do anything to anyone."

"I don't know Kev." Laney rubs her thumb over Kevin's knee comfortingly, "You just gotta try and find the guy who did it, okay? I know the killer took some kind of rope to her throat, so it was a crime of passion. Are you sure your sister wasn't seeing anyone?" Kevin shakes his head,more violently now,

"No! Teagan would tell me if she were dating anyone!" At this time it wouldn't take a shrink to diagnose Kevin as distressed, "and she wouldn't let herself get mixed in with the wrong kinds of people. God, she was just a kid!" His cries turn slowly from pained howls into soft wails of pain and distress.

When Castle and Beckett both arrived they find the crime scene to be seemingly void of all members of their team. The only people Beckett can see at the moment is Javier talking to some standers by about what might have happened to the victim,

"Espo, what's going on? Where are Ryan and Laney?" Beckett approaches Javier as he finishes up talking to a very flustered, old woman holding an oversized purse. All Javi can do is sigh and point to where Laney is sitting next to Kevin on the curb, just outside of the yellow tape,

"The victim is one, Teagan Margaret Ryan. Twenty-three years old, a hundred thirty pounds, five foot four, blue eyes, and brown hair. Went to school at Manhattan University." There's a pause as Javi glances back at Kevin and Laney and back to Beckett and Castle, "She's Kevin's sister."

"Woah!" Castle's head whips from looking at Javier to the victim then to Kevin, "I had no idea that he had a sister," He looks from the frantic detective to Beckett, "Did you know he had a sister?"

"No clue." Beckett looks from Castle to Javier, "How do you know?" Javier looks at his notes and then to Teagan,

"The physical similarities are uncanny, they have the same last name and they have the same necklaces." Javi holds up the necklace that had been seen earlier by Kevin in a plastic evidence bag so Castle and Beckett could both see, "Her's means sister and his means brother." Beckett holds her hand out for Javi to hand her the bag, "And Kev identified her himself. But it's not the fact that they're siblings that makes it that bad." He motions for Castle and Beckett to follow him toward the body in the middle of the street. When they reach the still form he grabs the jacket that had been placed back over her face and pulls it back once more to reveal a disturbing message carved into the woman's beautiful face; "DET RYAN U R NEXT".

"Someone is making a personal threat toward my detectives." Beckett does as she always does, states the obvious without so much as hesitation, "We need to find out who did this as soon as possible. And we can't have Ryan on this one. He's too close." As Beckett watches the broken-up detective he stares back at her, a lost, sad look in his eyes.

There's something about those baby blues being so broken-up that can tear anyone apart.


	2. Chapter 2

**Second Chapter and it is aaaaaall filler I am so sorry. But it's all I could write considering I've lost my touch with writing momentarily.**

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Detective Beckett hadn't seen Kevin like this in- well never. He's a mess, even though he's been to plenty of crime scenes, something about this one set him in a whole other direction. The poor man had enough to worry about at home with Jenny and figuring everything out in the apartment for the new addition to their family. He's currently sitting at his desk, his hair mussed up from his pulling at it and running his hands through it. His tie is loose and his vest is unbuttoned. He's not the Kevin Ryan that had been in there half an hour before.

Javi, Beckett and Castle all exchange a look of caution and concern as they think about what to do with their favorite Irish detective. Beckett lets out a defeated sigh and turns to Javi, finding no other solution for their problem than to send him back home,

"Javi, I need you to tell him he should go home." Javier steps back a little and laughs quietly,

"You're funny if you think I'm actually gonna tell him-" Beckett cocks a stern eyebrow at the Cuban detective. Javier sighs and rolls his eyes, "Fine. But if he hurts me Castle owes me a pair of concert tickets."

"Hey!" The stunned author pipes up as Javier exits back into the bullpen. As he approaches the incurably pensive Detective Ryan, who is staring at the murder board, he tries to come up with a way of telling him to go home without actually telling him to go home,

"Hey, Kev." The Irishman glances at his Cuban counterpart and then back to the murder board,

"Hey Javi." His voice is low, solemn even as he bring the hand that had previously been at his lips, deciphering the message carved into Teagan's skin and the necklace that is hanging in the bag on the board, "Who would possibly want to do this to a kid like her?" Javi goes around to the other side of the desk and leans on it next to Kevin,

"I don't know man. But you know what I do know?" Kevin's head whips back toward his partner, thinking he got a lead somewhere, "I know that she'd want you to go home, be with your wife. Sleep." As Javier tries convincing him to go home Kevin rolls his eyes and gets up, moving away from Javier and back to his own desk,

"I'm not going home yet. Not until we have somebody in custody." Kevin is determined as he sits down at his computer, looking up Teagan's phone and bank records, "We can find something in here that can lead us to someone." His voice is starting to break and his already puffy, red eyes are getting blurry with tears again, "I know we can." Javier comes around next to him and pushes his rolling chair back,

"Not you, not today. Go home. Call Matt, hug your wife." Javier grabs Kevin by the arm and pulls him up, "Have some of that honey-milk with her, cry. Do anything." There's a pause as Kevin glances down at the floor, trying to find someway to get out of this, "Just don't be here."

Kevin lets out a defeated sigh, knowing that arguing against his partner wouldn't end well and that he'd end up going home anyway,

"Fine." He mumbles quietly and grabs his coat and starts to go for his badge and gun before Javier stops him,

"You can take the badge. Leave the gun." Kevin clenches his jaw and grabs his badge before putting his coat on and going out to his own car that's waiting in the parking structure behind the building.

As Kevin drives away everything is near silent, save for the soft radio playing behind the sound of the tires on the pavement as he zooms through the busy New York streets. At first Kevin was going to go to the Old Haunt to maybe have a drink or two but he decided he'd rather be back home with Jenny rather than anywhere else. As Kevin decides to get the lead out he flips on his siren and lights, parting what seems to be a sea of cars, all the way back to his apartment.

Once home Kevin all but runs up to his apartment, wanting to be in the safest place he could think of; with his wife and unborn daughter in the calming, quiet atmosphere of their home. He opens the door as quietly as he can and hangs his coat on the rack next to the door before setting his badge on the table along with his keys. As he moves into the apartment he starts to undo his jacket and vest, eventually making it to the hamper where they put their dirty clothes and tossing them in, shortly followed by his shirt and he hangs his tie next to the hamper and continues to undress himself as he gets closer to the room he shares with Jenny. When at the door he tosses his slacks and socks into the fabric container.

He opens the door cautiously and peeks his head in before walking ass lightly as he can inside and over to the bed. When he sees his gorgeous wife's pregnant form laying, asleep in the large bed he smiles to himself and sneaks over, pulling the large, cream colored comforter up before slipping in behind his love. She's laying with her back to him, resting two hands underneath her head and her slight baby bump sticking out enough to the point of notability. When Kevin lays down he wraps his arms around Jenny's chest, pulling her close to him and kissing her neck softly. At the feeling of his lips against her skin Jenny begins to stir awake, moaning, breathily to life,

"Kev?" Her voice is soft, shrouded in sleep as she starts to sit up and roll over toward him, "You're home already? I thought you weren't going to be home until three." Kevin chuckles and kisses her neck again,

"The case got to me and Javi sent me home." He rubs his thumb over her collarbone and squeezes her close to him. Jenny sits up and rolls over so she's facing him,

"What's with this case, honey?" Immediately Jenny knew something was wrong with what Kevin was saying,

"It's the victim. She was close to me." Kevin kisses her nose softly, "It's nothing." He rubs her arm softly with his thumb and tries to dismiss the subject from the room,

"Kev, it's not nothing. What's going on, who's the victim?" Jenny sits up and stays up this time, concerned for her husband who is normally all about sharing the nitty gritty details about certain cases he's worked. She leans back and flicks the light on, watching her husband as the soft, orange-ish yellow light illuminates his face.

His eyes are ringed with red, puffy and bloodshot while his hair is a mess atop his head and he looks tired, more than tired even drained of life. His skin is pale and his nose is raw looking from having been rubbed too much with tissues,

"The victim is Teagan Margaret Ryan." Jenny scrunches her eyebrows together, trying to figure out what kind of hint her husband was trying to tell her. Kevin looks down at the sheets and his hand slowly rises up to his chest where his necklace sat proudly between his pecs, "She was my baby sister." He fondles the Celtic symbol gently and his eyes look blank as they stare out at nothing.

Jenny had only ever seen this younger sister once; at their wedding she'd been very quiet, sitting in the front with tears in her eyes and the pretty gold heart clutched in her hand gently. Jenny nods at the memory of the girl. She was kind and fun, she looked like she could be Kev's twin sister.

After a moment of them sitting together like that Jenny scoots closer to Kevin and grabs him in a tight, loving hug,

"I'm so sorry babe." Her voice is soft and kind in the heartsick detective's ear, "How did they do it?" Kevin shakes his head, closing his eyes and letting his hand drop in the pit created by his legs, "C'mon, you can tell me honey." Jenny puts her hand under his chin and pushes his head up so he's looking at her. He looks at her and then back down at the bed before sighing defeatedly,

"She was strangled." He says it low, almost too low for Jenny to hear but she catches it, so he won't have to repeat to her although he's probably been repeating it to himself over and over again every minute since he saw the body, "Laney and Javi are saying it was a crime of passion and that she knew the killer." He shakes his head quickly and scrunches his eyebrows together in an abashed fashion, "She would never let herself get mixed up with anyone bad in her life and she'd never not tell me if she had a boyfriend." After he finishes the sentence he chews on the inside of his lip, his eyes darting around the lit part of the room, trying to find answers to his question, "That's not the worst part though. Th-" He took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for what he was about to tell his wife. He took a moment and closed his eyes, composing himself before taking another deep breath and letting it go, "They had carved," He pauses, trying to figure out why they did it in his head, "A message." He starts to get choked up as he remembers seeing what they had done to the baby of his family, "Into her face with a box cutter." He tries to stop the tears as they begin to fill his eyes, "They said I would be next." Kevin takes a deep, sharp breath as Jenny leans closer to him, kissing his cheek softly,

"I'm so sorry Kevin." After placing the kiss on his cheek she grabs him in a tight hug. Kevin puts his hands on her waist and pulls her onto his lap, burying his own face in her shoulder, "Come on sweety." Jenny gets up, holding Kevin's hand as she pulls him from the bedroom into the kitchen, "You need sleep." When they get into the kitchen Kevin wraps his arms under Jenny's chest and holds her close to his body as she makes him her famous honeymilk to help him get to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I've been MIA lately I had a big concert to attend and wa thus busy but here you have a glorious new chapter (just kidding)**

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Back in the precinct Javier and Kate Beckett are both sifting through Teagan's financial and phone records to find a hiccup that could lead to someone that could have possibly killed her. Richard Castle is standing at the murder board, scribbling everything that they have so far from the case in neat and organized columns according to the different headings,  
"Okay so we have one, Teagan Ryan, a young woman cut down in her prime in lower Manhattan with a tie to the local police force and a hateful message carved into her face." He takes a step back from what he has scrawled across the board and glances back at the two remaining detectives at their desks, "Disgruntled ex-con takes his revenge?" With no one to back up his- for once reasonable explanation as to why someone would murder the poor girl Richard is left hanging with Kate rolling her eyes and Javier completely ignoring him, "Come on of all the crazy conspiracies that one is the most plausible! You guys have to at least think for a little bit that that could be what is happening." Feeling defeated Richard sits down in his chair next to Kate's desk and continues to stare at the murder board, "I mean come on you have to believe it a little!" Kate rolls her eyes and looks back at her computer screen,  
"Well, Castle we can't disprove anything but for now we aren't going to say yes to that." Kate smirks and continues going through the never ending data lines trailing across the screen in monotonous greens and blacks,  
"Yo, I think I got something." Javier called the attention of Kate and their writer counterpart as he himself stared at the screen, "There's a pattern in her financials. Every month she'd get a deposit of fifteen grand into her bank account from an anonymous offshore account." Kate came around next to him and leaned close, investigating the screen carefully,  
"That's funny." Richard goes back around to Kates desk and checks the screen again, clicking the mouse a few times before turning the screen so Javier and Kate could both see it, "There are calls coordinating with the deposits going back almost half a year." Richard looks at Kate and then to Javier who checks the financials again,  
"That's about when the deposits started." Kate let out a sigh and went back to her computer,  
"Alright, well Kev said she lived and went to school at Manhattan University for the Art." She stands up and grabs her coat before rummaging through her top drawer for her car keys, "We can check to see if anybody knew what Teagan was doing the night she was killed. But we'll start tomorrow, it's too late now to question anybody, even at a college." Javier nods and grabs his own leather coat off the back of the chair and Richard does the same. Javier stays back for a little while Richard and Kate walk ahead, new ideas stirring in their minds as they walk in stride with each other over the hard, linoleum flooring,  
"You know, something about this doesn't seem like just a regular threat." Kate mumbles quietly, squinting her eyes as she tries desperately to put the puzzle pieces together in her mind,  
"What gave you the first hint?" Richard starts to speak sarcastically at Kate, "Was it the message carved into Teagan's face? Or perhaps it was possibly that it had been directed at Kevin." Kate rolls her eyes and shoves Rick as they enter the elevator.  
This had been a recurring problem recently. Kate would be trying ideas and Rick would shoot them down with snide and sarcastic remarks,  
"Shove it, Castle." Rick grabs his arm and makes the kind of face a small child makes when it's more-so angry at an opposing child rather than physically hurt by them, "For all we know this could have been a nut job who got out of the ward and attacked a random girl."  
"And what of the message?"  
"Someone carved that in after the fact. Someone who knew who Teagan was and who she had connections to." With her usual comment Rick's notions were put to rest, but only momentarily for after the elevator doors close he opens his mouth and out spews more theories,  
"Well, then why did they put the coat over her face? Wouldn't the killer want the world to see their message?" This stumped Kate. It wasn't uncommon for the two of them to get into heated debates and Rick suddenly come up with a valid point that would puzzle even himself sometimes,  
"What if someone did find her after the fact but hadn't bothered to call her in." Kate looked up at Rick, a light bouncing in her eyes showing wonder and intrigue,  
"It wouldn't be the first time someone has taken advantage of a fresh kill." And with that the elevator door lets out a soft ding, alerting the passengers that they had arrived at their destination, which was oddly enough the morgue, not the parking garage, "Kate why are we in the morgue? I thought we were going home." Kate shakes her head,  
"Oh, Castle. You have got to pay more attention to who presses which button." Kate leads him out of the elevator and to where Laney is standing solemnly over Teagan's body, "Hey, Laney, are you okay?" The question snaps the lovely coroner from her daze and brings her back to the real world,  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Her voice sounded like it hadn't been used in months, "Uhm, lividity and liver temp say she's been dead for around three hours, meaning she had been killed around nine o'clock tonight." Laney still seemed distant as she gave them the basic report, "Cause of death was strangulation." She walks over to Teagan's head and uncovers it to the shoulders, revealing ligature marks on her neck matching some kind of rope or chain, "Petechial hemorrhaging confirms that." She places her index finger and thumb on either eyelid of her right eye, opening it up wide enough to reveal the clouded, baby blue.  
Laney lets out a defeated sigh and leans her hands on the table again, staring down at the younger girl's form,  
"I sat with her at their wedding, you know." Kate and Rick both look form the beautiful brunette up at Laney, "She was so smart, and creative. I caught her doodling on the name card that had been given to her, she was really talented." Laney grabs the sheet again and lays back over Teagan's head, "And she really loved her brother." Laney took a moment to gaze at the young girl before remembering she had more for them, "Oh, uhm, the contents of her stomach didn't show anything out of the ordinary, but she was vegetarian. And when CSU emptied her pockets they found an X-Acto knife tucked away in her left coat pocket. I'm having the lab test it now for blood and I should have results by the morning." Kate and Rick both nod, slowly, sadly as Laney continues to stare at the dead body under the white sheet with sad, quiet eyes, "I wish there was something I could do for her or for Kevin. They deserve at least something."  
"Don't try pity gifts." Rick piped up, catching Laney off guard, "Believe me Kevin won't accept them. It's a pride thing he has." Laney nods, understanding why he wouldn't while Kate and Rick excuse themselves from the room, walking back to the elevator in close to silence.  
This case is taking a toll on more than Kevin Ryan.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning isn't anymore forgiving to Kevin than the night before. He calls Kate to see if he can come in to work and she flat out denies him, saying that he's emotionally compromised and shouldn't be allowed near the case. She pulls the same bullshit that everyone else had been saying the day before, saying that he should be at home, spending time with his wife and their unborn daughter.

But Kevin didn't want to do that, no matter what he did he couldn't keep still. He took Jenny to see a movie and out to lunch but all he could think about is why anyone would want to hurt his darling little sister,

"Kev, come on." Jenny put her hand on her husband's arm, grabbing his attention with a pair of worried blue eyes, "You can't let yourself get wrapped up in her death." They are sitting out in a courtyard in downtown New York, next to wach other at a small, round cafe` table with a pair of cream mugs filled with coffee and tea in front of them, "She'd want you to be going on as you normally would." Jenny tries reassuring her husband of his younger sister's wishes.

All Kevin does is shake his head. He couldn't just sit idly by while his sister's killer is out on the loose,

"I have to do something to help them!" Kevin's eyes are darting between one thing and another, looking wild as they study the surrounding area,

"Believe me." Jenny's voice is kind a reassuring as she moves her hand from te crook of Kevin's elbow to his shoulder, "You're doing something by staying away." She pats his shoulder and leans closer to him, kissing his cheek kindly.

This snaps Kevin out of his haze and he looks to his wife, whom is staring back at him with eyes hoping that he'd agree with her. He takes a second before he nods and runs a very tired hand through his hair.

If anyone had seen Kevin right they might not have recognized him. Instead of his usual, snazzy three piece suit he's wearing a dark blue t-shirt and a pair of dark wash jeans, cuffed at the bottom where they meet his black and white converse. He looks almost like a different man,

"I'll at least go say hi and check up on the case." Kevin nods and kisses Jenny's cheek, "You stay home I'll be back at the house in half an hour." And with that Kevin takes a last sip of his coffee, pats Jenny's arm and stands up with her, dropping the money on the table and walking with her back to their car.

The walk isn't long, Kevin managed to find a parking spot close to the cafe` for Jenny. The baby had gotten so big that Jenny had gone from regular walking to the famous pregnant lady waddle. Kevin watches his wife walk ahead of him toward their car and smiles, coming up behind her to grab her in a tight hug and kiss her neck,

"Have I ever told you how adorable you are when you walk?" Jenny shakes her head and turns so she can see the big happy grin on her husband's face,

"Oh you." Kevin nuzzles his nose into Jenny's neck and kisses her cheek,

"Hey, why don't you come into the precinct with me?" Kevin goes around to Jenny's other side and goes for the car door, grabbing the handle and flinging the door open for her, "They haven't seen you since I told them about the baby." The grin on his face grows as Jenny slips into the car. He watches her as she shakes her head at him, rolling her eyes all the while with a kind smile on her face. When he slips into the driver's seat he continues to smile at Jenny, his baby blue eyes watching her face carefully, "C'mon it'll be fun! And you can talk wedding with Beckett!" It seemed to always slip everyone's mind that Rick and Kate are engaged. They never talk about it and Kate doesn't flash the diamond at all,

"Okay, fine. But only for a little bit!" Jenny wags her finger at Kevin and leans over the center console, kissing his cheek sweetly, "You know how you get when you spend too much time there."

"I know, I know. It'll only be a few minutes!" And with that they drive off, in the direction of the twelfth precinct.

Javier and Kate are both in the precinct early, trying to crack something in the case of Teagan Ryan. Javi had tracked down the phone number used to contact Teagan over the months down to a former drug dealer in the area she had been found. The drug dealer's name is Steven Caulfield and his photo is up on the murder board as the prime suspect so far. As Rick saunters in, the usual pair of coffees in his hands, he glances at the murder board,

"Steven Caulfield? Could this be more Catcher in the Rye?" He walks up next to Kate and leans on her desk, setting the coffee next to her hand,

"I don't know, maybe." She takes a sip and continues to stare at the screen of names and numbers in front of her, "So I was talking to Laney this morning and she said that the message was carved in post-mortem." She leans back in her chair and continues to stare at the board, "And she found some trace fingerprints on her wrists along with some bruising, which tells us she'd been restrained." Javier comes over and joins the two of them at Kate's desk, staring at the murder board with them, "You find anything, Espo?"

"Uh, no. Just going through Caulfield's record. This kid has got quite a wrap-sheet. Misdemeanors include: Grand theft, possession with intent to sell, and a few other petty thefts. Nothing this violent." Javi hands the folder over to Kate, letting her flip through the different misdemeanors the suspect was guilty of.

Just as she was putting the folder down a familiar whistle caught her ear from the front of the precinct. The trio whipped their heads around toward the elevator to find Kevin and Jenny walking toward them, Jenny being bigger than ever with the baby floating around inside her,,

"Kevin!" Rick was the first to say anything to the pair, "What're you doing here? I thought you were gonna be at home!"

"Yeah, man, you shouldn't be here." Javi spoke up to, glancing from him to Jenny, "Hey, Jenny. Wow did you swallow a planet or something?" Jenny laughs at him and shakes her head, opening her arms to invite him in for a hug,

"No, you're close though. You know we're having a baby, right?" Javi hugs her softly before, "Well looks like the singular should be turning plural." Everyone in the room takes a second to let what Jenny just said sink in. Everyone except Kevin that is,

"Really?" Kate stands up and walks to Jenny, grabbing her in a tight hug, "When did you guys find out?"

"Just a few weeks ago." Jenny goes back to Kevin's side where he lets his arm rest in the small of her back and holding her close to him,

"Congrats, Kev." Javi comes up and pats him on the shoulder with a big smile plastered on his face,

"Got any suspects yet?" Kevin takes his arm back from behind Jenny and crosses it over his chest, moving over to the murder board with squinted, curious eyes.

"Just the one, Steven Caulfield." Javi comes up next to him, pointing at the photo on the whiteboard, "We were gonna go find him and bring him in now." Kevin nods and turns toward his desk, reaching for his badge and gun, "Woah, woah buddy, you're not going on this one." Javi put his hand on Kevin's chest, pushing him back in the direction of the murder board,

"Come on man, it's my sister, I should at least get to catch the guy who did it to her." He lightly pushes Javi back. Javi shakes his head and pushes him back to the desk,

"And that's exactly why you're not allowed to come with us." Kate continues Javi's sentence and grabs her guns and badge, "Javi, Castle, lets go." Kevin takes a step toward them before giving up and leaning back against Kate's desk.

Jenny comes to Kevin's side and pulls him slightly toward the door, urging him to leave the precinct silently. Kevin lets Jenny's hands slip through his fingers as she walked to the elevator doors,

"You go ahead home, I'll catch a cab later." And with that Jenny walks out of the precinct, Kevin watching her move with a kind of sad gleam in his eye, thinking what if something were to happen to her, the killer having already taken his sister from him. What if they take Jenny too? Kevin takes his eyes from Jenny, whipping them back to the murder board and scanning over each and every little detail scrawled on the whiteboard with a nagging itch inside his heart.


	5. PSA: Not an actual chapter

**Hey guys! I haven't been on this story in a while and I feel very bad about that! But as soon as Castle picks back up I'll be back at it with working on this one! I promise! I would like to welcome my new followers by saying hello darlings and welcome to this story in all its delayed glory!**

**I would hope you guys stick around with me and all my slow as hell updates! Thank you all for being around to watch me do nothing I'll have something up soon I promise!**


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